Christmas came early for a pair of Bronx buddies and a Long Island family, who will stuff their stockings with a combined $16 million in prize money from the King Kong scratch-off lottery.

Bronx pals Felix Perez and Kerim Bonfoh-Basabi were filled with holiday cheer yesterday after lottery officials validated their $8 million ticket, a winner that was scratched off with what is now New York’s luckiest penny.

The other winner, Loretta Curcio, a second-grade teacher from North Merrick, L.I., played the game when her two sons urged her to pull their car over and buy a ticket at a local greeting-card shop.